analectnoun
a fragment or passage selected from a literary work;

Analects

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Filter by anthology: All · Betterment · Gratification · Connection · Somatic Architecture · Spiritual Architecture · Thought Architecture · Wealth Architecture · Digital Architecture · Collective Architecture

[marginalium] Is God A Mushroom? — 6 Mar 2025
[marginalium] Everything will be written by AI — 5 Mar 2025
[marginalium] Self-Domesticated Ape — 4 Mar 2025
[marginalium] We think about AI weird — 3 Mar 2025
[marginalium] Are women more left — 1 Mar 2025
[marginalium] Everyone knows your location — 1 Mar 2025
[marginalium] Singleness and the Pandemic Dating Recession — 1 Mar 2025
[article] Language is a barrier to communication — 28 Feb 2025
Our brain clusters things that are similar to each other together. This includes ideas and the words we attach to them. If your words are attached to the wrong ideas, you’re going to struggle to make the connection for them.
[article] Aesthetics are facts too — 21 Feb 2025
Cultural and aesthetic ‘facts’ are as real as any ‘objective’ truths. They’re just centred on different kinds of meaning. Trivialising them because they ‘go against’ the evidence is failing to recognise what evidence they care about.
[marginalium] Culture trumps evidence — 20 Feb 2025
[marginalium] The downsides of the prediction machine — 19 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Is science done by a small elite — 19 Feb 2025
[marginalium] We enjoy ‘waiting’ — 18 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Should corporations save the ivory tower — 17 Feb 2025
[marginalium] Breakfast for Eight Billion — 14 Feb 2025

btrmt. (text-only version)

The full site with interactive features is available at btr.mt.

btrmt. (betterment) examines ideologies worth choosing. Created by Dorian Minors—Cambridge PhD in cognitive neuroscience, Associate Professor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Core philosophy: humans are animals first, with automatic patterns shaped for us, not by us. Better to examine and choose.

Core concepts. Animals First: automatic patterns of thought and action, but our greatest capacity is nurture. Half Awake: deadened by systems that narrow rather than expand potential. Karstica: unexamined ideologies (hidden sinkholes beneath). Credenda: belief systems we should choose deliberately.

The manifesto. Cynosure (focus): betterment, gratification, connection. Architecture (support): inner (somatic, spiritual, thought) and outer (digital, collective, wealth).

Mission. Not answers but examination. Break academic gatekeeping. Make sciences of mind accessible. Question rather than prescribe.

Writing style. Scholarly without jargon barriers. Philosophical yet practical—grounded in neuroscience and lived experience. Reflective, discovery-oriented. Literary references and metaphor. Critical of systems that narrow human potential. Rejects "humans are flawed"—we're half awake, not broken.

Copyright. BTRMT LIMITED (England/Wales no. 13755561) 2026. Dorian Minors 2026.

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About Dorian Minors. Started btrmt. in 2013 to share sciences of mind with people who weren't studying them. Background: six years Australian Defence Force (Platoon Commander, Infantry); a decade of clinical practice; Gates Cambridge Scholar; PhD cognitive neuroscience, University of Cambridge (2018–2024); currently Associate Professor, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he runs the ethical leadership module. Research interests: neural basis of intelligent behaviour; ritual formation and breakdown; ethical decision-making and leadership; judgement and intent when decisions are shared with AI; wellbeing.

External projects (links also available via Analects):

Neurotypica: Brain science guide for non-scientists

Black Cortex: Leadership consulting

Analects

btrmt. (text-only version)

Resources

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